Packet processing systems utilize network routing or switch integrated circuits (ICs) to forward packets from input or ingress ports to output or egress ports. In particular, these integrated circuits are able to forward network packets from an ingress port to one or more egress ports based upon packet filter rules and information contained within selected fields within the input packets. This information can include user identification information, such as source and destination address information, as well as other information.
For network testing, packet traffic is often monitored from numerous network nodes. This monitored network packet traffic is then forwarded to one or more network analyzer tools to analyze various network related items, such as whether or not intrusions are occurring within a network. Prior solutions have used a network tool optimizer (NTO) to receive one or more packet streams from network sources at source ports for the NTO device, to process these source packets based upon packet filter rules defined within the NTO, and to forward them to one or more network analyzer tools connected to output ports for the NTO. As networks have increased in size and complexity, however, it has become difficult for an NTO to handle packet forwarding for network analysis purposes.